Genre: YA Fantasy (Family centric w/ light romance)
Summary: Come and mend your broken hearts here.
Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her–beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing–it’s taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He’s tapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. So he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest, but there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things. Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.
My Humble Opinion:
You could say that this is a quiet book, a beautiful re-imagining of the Grimm’s faerie tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”. And you’d be right to a point. The world the story takes place in is like our own, but tinged with magic. It has recognizable elements, but it’s a unique world of its own. True, Entwined doesn’t start off with a bang, and the suspense is much more emotional and psychological. There is plenty of action throughout, but it takes form in the rising stakes of emotional, mental and physical well being rather than sword fights (although there is that too).
This is one of the most powerful and empowering books I have ever read. The romance is slow and builds realistically, and falls to the way side for something more important-the love and ties that one has with their family. With twelve sisters in the book, the Keeper, the King, and the small handful of love interests, this book has quite a large cast. But every single character is vital and important. Every character is fleshed out beautifully, which leads to wonderful humor and heart breaking arguments (some of the arguments between the sisters as well as their arguments with the King were incredibly hard to read).
Unlike in the Grimm faerie tale, the main characters are girls and their weapon is dancing. They learn about themselves, each other, and their father through dancing. Each dance is described wonderfully, and in such a way that the reader really does realize that dancing is not only an art but a demanding, challenging one at that. That was probably my favorite aspect about Entwined. Dancing, and all things associated with it are all valuable and highly praised things. The girls have power, and when it is taken away they yank it back through dancing. Azalea as the oldest empowers the others, but the others empower her too.
TL;DR: Frankly, I don’t know what’s not to like about this book. The writing is melodic, the characters are fantastic and there are some lovely twists. There’s even a good bit of creepiness and mystery in this as well, and everything is pulled together seamlessly. It’s a book I would recommend to anyone, and one I completely adore. It’s books like this that make reading worthwhile.
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